What happened

The event date for this report is 2026-05-30. Three passengers died following a hantavirus outbreak on board the polar expedition ship MV Hondius. The account is based on one supplied report and should be read as a record of conditions known at that point, rather than as a statement about later developments. Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The MV Hondius - on which three people died due to hantavirus - was expected to resume its cruise schedule from June 13.

The available figures and chronology

THE HAGUE - A cruise ship which sparked a global health alert over a deadly outbreak of hantavirus was on May 30 cleared to put to sea again after cleaning and disinfection. “From a public health perspective, there are no longer any obstacles to putting the Hondius back to sea,” the public health agency in the Dutch port of Rotterdam said, following a final inspection on May 29. These details help define the scale and immediate setting of the event without extending the evidence beyond what the supplied source states. Where a number is an estimate, provisional count, forecast or company claim, it should not be treated as a final independently audited total. The evidence packet does not support assumptions about motives, responsibility or longer-term outcomes beyond the facts described here.

The operational context

During the checks, infection control experts “determined that the Hondius had been cleaned effectively and that disinfection had been carried out in accordance with established guidelines,” a statement said. The owner of the MV Hondius, Oceanwide Expeditions, this week reported that the Hondius would leave Rotterdam once inspections were complete, and that it would resume its cruise schedule from June 13. These details help define the scale and immediate setting of the event without extending the evidence beyond what the supplied source states. Where a number is an estimate, provisional count, forecast or company claim, it should not be treated as a final independently audited total. The evidence packet does not support assumptions about motives, responsibility or longer-term outcomes beyond the facts described here.

What remained uncertain

The Hondius was sailing from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde when its journey was disrupted after three passengers died following the hantavirus outbreak. Some passengers had left the ship at the island of St Helena before the alert was raised. These details help define the scale and immediate setting of the event without extending the evidence beyond what the supplied source states. Where a number is an estimate, provisional count, forecast or company claim, it should not be treated as a final independently audited total. The evidence packet does not support assumptions about motives, responsibility or longer-term outcomes beyond the facts described here.

The record at the time

Taken together, the supplied material supports the main development in the headline and the specific details above. It does not establish what happened after 2026-05-30, and no later outcome is inferred here. The report therefore preserves the event-date framing, attributes the account to the available evidence and avoids turning an early figure or stated plan into a settled result. Further official data, technical findings or independent reporting could refine the picture, but those materials were not part of this packet.